Christmas '08

A delicious dinner for Christmas Eve!

Got to see my beautiful Grandparents.

Lining up by age to walk in to see presents.

A larger crowd than we've had in years. A thumbs up with delight!

Content faces.

More family visits!

Ending the day with a very enthusiastic Superman!

Christmas is here!

Here's a mini tree with the ornaments we got in Switzerland last year.

Jared strung lights along two rooms. I love it. I think we'll keep them up year round.

Do I look pregnant yet?

We're on our way to my Aunt Kaye's annual Christmas party. It was Jared's first time going since we were out of the country last year.

I can't wait to be a MOM!

So growing up I LOVED to play with my brother Sam and his G.I. Joe and Star Wars figures. When he was sick I would pretend I was sick also so we could play, and visa versa. HOWEVER...I love my dolls. I had 8 that I raised, including the one I adopted from my sister because I didn't think that propping your doll up on the bed all day constituted suitable motherhood. (Don't worry she's a fantastic mother now.)

When I was 20 mos. old and they brought my younger brother Sam home the first thing I said was, "That's my dolly."

I was one of those fortunate kids (and rather spoiled come to think of it) to own several cabbage patch dolls. I even had the preemie one with the mini bassinet and stroller.
Oh how I loved my babies. I fed them, changed their diapers and clothes and even put them to bed, all lined up in my bed, where there was barely enough room for me:)
My main dolls were Matthew, Miles, Brandon (the preemie) and Gracie (my sisters.) My other dolls were non-cabbage patch dolls who I loved just as much even thought I can't remember their names.
Here I am with a generic Cabbage Patch Kid which my mom called "their cousin." I totally fell for it. Her name was Jessica. She didn't have a full head of hair and her face was different. Besides, I mean pink hair. That's not natural for a kid.

OK, my brother Sam was the cutest kid ever.

This is Matthew and I. He had a tooth, so cute! No wonder I want a boy so much, I raised 3 of them already.

Here I am with a "real" baby. Whenever someone came to visit with a baby I just couldn't get enough.

Even better, TWINS!

Fascinated with how small her feet are.

So the other day as I was buying our stroller (I wanted to put my $200 REI dividend towards one before it ran out at the end of the year) I was thinking how I can't wait to push MY OWN BABY in MY OWN STROLLER. I've been pushing other people's kids around for years. Now I get a turn:)

Sunrise on a Sunday

I was just thinking the other day how much I missed our view in Zürich and the sunrises and sunsets. Also, sometimes the moon would flood our bed with light as we slumbered.

Jared captured a beautiful sunrise yesterday morning. Since he pops out of bed so early he's the only one who would see these in our household:)

Christmas Toffee

Last week I went to my mother's house to make TONS of toffee. Oh it's my favorite. Too bad the baby isn't really liking the toffee. JARED LIKES IT!

Have you noticed that this is kind of turning into a food blog? Sorry about that.

Hor d'oeuvres party!

So, I had some leftover cheese from a dinner and thought, hmmm...I need some people to help eat this. I decided to have an hor d'oeuvre party! I LOVE HOR D'OEUVRES! My friends and I in Switzerland got together one Friday just to eat Hor d'oeuvres that we had made.

My mom used to make those phyllo spinach triangles called Spanakopita and sausage puffs when she was a caterer and I was craving those very delectables.

OK, so to make Spanakopita you need Phyllo dough. I was having a lot of anxiety about dealing with the stuff, after hearing horror stories. I engaged Jared. He's a perfectionist and I knew he would made those triangles perfectly. Well he did and we used all the dough without throwing away a sheet, none of them dried out.

The cheeses: mild bri, stinky brie, havarti, white cheddar, gouda and a derby with this sage combo in between.

They turned out well!

Then for a night of hilarious charades with a randomly selected group of friends. I had people write down an actor or person or movie or song and put them into a bowl. Oh good times were had!

Love notes part 586

Remember how Jared likes to randomly leave me notes in the morning? I particularly like this one he left yesterday made out of spaghetti noodles. It's me and baby inside. I like how he signed it, because it's a work of art:)

Scary Christmas movies

You know those weird Christmas movies like Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer? They really freak me out. I'm never letting my children watch them. There are plenty of other awesome Christmas movies to watch. Like Elf, The Polar Express and A Christmas Story.

A day in Half Moon Bay with my love

Jared has been working a lot lately and we just weren't getting as much quality time together as we usually have...(like we had in Switzerland.) So Saturday we got up (Jared 4 hrs before me) and headed down to Half Moon Bay. It was a gorgeous day filled with sun and fog and beach and Mexican food!

I love Half Moon Bay because of the caves and desolate beaches. (Plus they had a toilet, thank goodness. Being pregnant doesn't let you stray from one for too long.)

Jared went off running...

...then I went off running...

...and then...

...we reunited:)

And lay down on my army blanket to read for a bit.

On Saturdays before we moved to Switzerland Jared would often do the 60 mile roundtrip coastal ride to Pescadero.

He always told me how they would stop there for delicious warm artichoke bread from the bakery...

...and goat cheese from the goat farm. I had been dieing to try some. So he took me there and I was in heaven. Fresh goat cheese...oh delicious.

Then we drove home past this guy.

Jared won...what's new?

The Buzz Lightyear photos finally came. I'm aiming really hard to beat Jared. ARGH! I didn't win.

Catching up with HS

Thanks to Facebook and Penny we had a little get together with people from my High School who were in town for Thanksgiving. I hadn't seen some of these people in almost 10 years.

Ryan, me, Heather (my best friend) Penny, Michelle and Angelique were from the class of '97

Then Stacy and Gabe popped in for the next photo were from other classes.

It's been fun reuniting with old friends. (Well, Heather and I see each other as much as we can.) Ryan and Stacy used to live next door. They had video games and gummy worms. It was always a treat going over there:) Also, the ginormous sword fish on the wall was always fun to look at.

Brownies by Jared

Later that evening when I came home from my mini reunion it smelled like brownies. Y'know I always knew Jared would be a good baker because he's really good a following directions. Unfortunately he hasn't made brownies enough to know that you don't cook them as long as they say on the box, because then they are over done. That didn't stop him from eating them.